Turnbull not up to the job, says Shorten

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Labor Leader Bill Shorten is calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to quit, saying he has failed to deliver the political stability he had promised, and facilitated the revival of One Nation through his reforms to Senate voting.

Mr Shorten said it was too soon to predict whether Labor would be able to form government with the help of the independents, but said either way Mr Turnbull should go.

"I think he should quit. He's taken this nation to an election on the basis of stability, he's delivered instability," Mr Shorten said.

"His own party know he's not up to the job.

"The Australian people know he's out of touch and he's given us Senate reform which involves two or three One Nation senators. The bloke is not up to the job."

The Australian Electoral Commission will not start counting votes again until tomorrow, with the prospect of a hung parliament looking more likely.

Economic policy blamed for poor result

Some Liberal party figures are blaming the Coalition's election performance on its approach to economic policy.

Western Australian Liberal Senator David Johnston said while he was relatively happy with the Coalition's performance in WA, the Government failed to deliver a convincing message on economic issues.

"I mean I was tearing my hair out. Jobs and growth as I said to you on day one - it's a bit trite," Senator Johnston said.

"We just did not fire any of the ammunition that we have."

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Crossbench power

5 lower house MPs who could swing a hung parliament

Rebekha Sharkie

Nick Xenophon Team's Rebekha Sharkie has won the South Australian seat of Mayo.

She has taken what was considered a very safe Liberal seat from former frontbencher Jamie Briggs.

NXT is also tipped to win three Senate seats.

Bob Katter

The leader of Katter's Australian Party easily won his rural seat of Kennedy in north Queensland, gaining a swing of more than 11 per cent on first preference votes.

Mr Katter says he is already working on a list of demands to put to the major parties in the face of a hung parliament and is keen to talk to other crossbench MPs as soon as possible.

Cathy McGowan

The independent has claimed victory in the seat of Indi for the second time after taking it from Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella in 2013.

Ms McGowan has ruled out doing any deals to help the Coalition or Labor form government.

Adam Bandt

Greens MP Adam Bandt has claimed victory in the seat of Melbourne for the third federal election in a row.

Following the 2010 election, which resulted in a hung parliament, Mr Bandt along with three independents decided to support a Labor minority government.

Andrew Wilkie

The independent member for the Tasmanian seat of Denison has retained his seat for a third term.

The number of votes for Mr Wilkie is currently around double of those for Labor candidate Jane Austin.

Mr Wilkie has said he will not be making any deals to help the Coalition or Labor form government.

Senator Johnston said the Coalition failed to campaign strongly on union corruption.

"The union movement's out of control in the building and construction industry – we never mentioned it."

The president of the Victorian Liberal Party Michael Kroger said the Coalition should not have floated so many potential economic reforms without committing to them.

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Earlier this year Mr Turnbull raised the idea of a GST hike and changing the way income tax is charged, before abandoning both ideas.

Mr Kroger told Sky News voters wanted more certainty.

"It's that period September to May where we abandoned economic leadership and confused the electorate and said we don't have a plan and we're essentially making it up as they go along."

ACTU says union movement had 'massive impact'

Meanwhile, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is claiming the union movement's campaign had a "massive impact" on helping deliver the tight election result.

In the lead-up to the election, Labor accused the Government of planning to sell off Medicare and attacked the Coalition's continuation of the freeze on rebates paid to doctors as a "GP co-payment by stealth" and part of a "Medicare privatisation" agenda.

The ACTU said thousands of its members campaigned on Medicare in the lead up to election day.

"Thousands of us handed out 1 million replica Medicare cards in the last 48 hours [of the campaign]," ACTU president Ged Kearney and secretary Dave Oliver said in an email to members.

"We had conversations with 46,102 union members who were swinging voters and convinced 33,191 to put the Liberals last."